Pawan Hans Ltd: Brighter future from tough past?

As for its fleet, a majority of its choppers have been operating for over 30 years and incur a very high maintenance cost.

India’s Pawan Hans Limited (PHL) has been in the news recently for its inability to pay salaries on time to employees, and before that, for being on the list of Public Sector Units the government wanted to sell off.
Despite a failed effort at disinvestment, the helicopter hire company, which mainly serves India’s oil exploration sector and select routes in the North East where fixed-wing aircraft find it difficult to function, remains ‘robust’. 

PHL, which clocked Rs 20-crore net profit in FY18, has as on March 31, 2018, some Rs 253 crore non-current liabilities, including  Rs 202-crore deferred income tax liabilities and loans of Rs 19 crore. It had another Rs 210 crore in current liabilities.

However, the Civil Aviation Ministry, which runs PHL in a 51:49 per cent partnership with ONGC, believes that the chopper company has a future ahead as the demand for helicopters is likely to increase rather than a decline in the days ahead.  

Officials say PHL has logged more than 1 million flying hours and lakhs of landings and could become a 100-helicopter company by 2027, if “properly nurtured.” According to former Pawan Hans chairman and managing director Ranjan Chatterjee IAS (Retd), “India will, in time, follow global trends in helicopter use, which has been increasing … to push that we do need to create new avenues of services.”
“We need to encourage the concept of heli-taxi services — a concept popular abroad, where busy executives hire choppers to fly from an airport to their offices or other workplaces. Copters are used for ambulance services or policing or even news gathering by TV crews,” said Chatterjee. To do that, planners say, India has to build many more heli-ports, a concept once part of the civil aviation policy, which never really took off.

Traditionally, Pawan Hans’ main clients have always been ONGC, private oil firms with offshore rigs and the government. But, in recent times, Pawan Hans lost its monopolistic position with ONGC as the latter inducted GVHCL and Heligo for some of its operations.

Others tracking the sector said that management-wise, a lot is needed to be done. “Its fleet is old; it has way too many employees and it is losing out to the competition. If the government is serious about divestment, it will have to take bold steps,” said an aviation expert, who did not wish to be named.

The firm has a workforce of 700 personnel, which roughly translate to 20 employees per helicopter, way above the global industry average of 5-6 employees per helicopter. As for its fleet, a majority of its choppers have been operating for over 30 years and incur a very high maintenance cost.
 

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